I'm very excited to announce that my latest release, "Children of Alcyone," is available on Hypnos/Hypnos Secret Sounds in the Hypnos Store. Below is the blurb I just wrote to support the release. An early version of "Golden Cloud" from this disk can be found on my AW.ning page:

++++The inspiring energy for "Children of Alcyone" was/is the books of Barbara Marciniak. Marciniak's books are said to be channeled information from the Pleiadians, our distant multi-dimensional ancestors from the Pleiades constellation. (Alcyone is the name of the "central sun" of this constellation.) Upon being introduced to these books, I was immediately taken by their wit and irreverence, the nearly unfathomable timeline of events, and their uncanny relevance to things that are currently taking place here on Earth (the first of these books were channeled in the early 90's).

The initial sound sketches for "Children" were begun in September of 2007 in the tidal wave of energy that was Steve Roach's "Into the SoundCurrent" masters' class, and elaborated upon, refined, and re-energized over the intervening 3 years in my own studio. The result is a sometimes murky, sometimes soothing, sometimes phantasmagorical series of excursions through multiple timelines, and myriad possible half lit universes that other versions of ourselves inhabit.

My friend, and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Benham, not only created the art for this disk, but contributed energy and sounds to a couple of tracks with his array of homemade instruments during a series of improvisations between he and myself captured at my studio.++++

Light Age - 22:51Anthem for a the age we've just entered. This is one of those pieces that just sort of come forth once in a while that I can hear being arranged for an orchestra in the future. Kronos does Steve Brand?

Outside The Time Grid - 17:15Huge mandalas, tectonic plates of time slowly spinning, moving, grating against one another. You sit before yourself. Features part of an improv between Jonathan (organ whistle device) and myself (flute).

Into The Central Sun - 12:30Envision the final moments of "The Fountain"...this time, you are in that bubbleship heading to Xibalba...or is it Alcyone. No return trip.

Thank you Steve, for the announcement. I've been planning to roll out the full announcement on this release soon, but you beat me to it! Our own announcement, reformatted for the Hypnos Forum, will be posted below.

2009. The second release by Steve Brand on our Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint, Children of Alcyone demonstrates the characteristic otherworldly quality of the artist's best work. Generally quite simple, at times singlemindedly minimal, this work is nonetheless possessed of a depth and complexity that are revealed upon repeated listening. Stretched-out drone structures combine with subtle tribal/ethnic elements to create very effective atmospheres for almost hypnotic relaxation.

Though we're tempted to call Brand one of our favorite "new" artists, in fact he has been active as a recording artist for quite some time, having released many recordings under the name Augur, along with a handful of solo and collaborative works under his own name this past year.

Steve Brand says:"The inspiring energy for Children of Alcyone was/is the books of Barbara Marciniak. Marciniak's books are said to be channeled information from the Pleiadians, our distant multi-dimensional ancestors from the Pleiades constellation. (Alcyone is the name of the "central sun" of this constellation.) Upon being introduced to these books, I was immediately taken by their wit and irreverence, the nearly unfathomable timeline of events, and their uncanny relevance to things that are currently taking place here on Earth (the first of these books were channeled in the early 90's).

The initial sound sketches for "Children" were begun in September of 2007 in the tidal wave of energy that was Steve Roach's "Into the SoundCurrent" masters' class, and elaborated upon, refined, and re-energized over the intervening 3 years in my own studio. The result is a sometimes murky, sometimes soothing, sometimes phantasmagorical series of excursions through multiple timelines, and myriad possible half lit universes that other versions of ourselves inhabit.

My friend, and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Benham, not only created the art for this disk, but contributed energy and sounds to a couple of tracks with his array of homemade instruments during a series of improvisations between he and myself captured at my studio."

I ordered this Thursday and am really looking forward to it's arrival. I own just about everything Steve has released under his own name. Great stuff! As usual I screwed up my order and as usual Lena caught and fixed my mistake. One of these days I'll figure out how to order online. Harry